For generations, Métis in the Upper Great Lakes have used their deep connection to and knowledge of the waters to earn a living for their families, creating prosperity through water-based professions like captaining, guiding, and commercial fishing. Boat building became another vital livelihood for many Métis families around Georgian Bay as government regulation, settler tourism, and broader economic changes caused traditional Métis economies to decline in the late 19th and e

For generations, Métis have been expert all-season travellers of the lands and waters of their Homelands. As Christy Ann Simons recounted in her memoirs of growing up on St. Joseph Island, near Sault Ste. Marie, during the late 1800s, the local Métis community’s craftsmanship and place-based knowledge enabled them to travel freely all year long: “The sailboat was their method of traveling in summer, dog team and snowshoes in winter (homemade sleds and shoes).” For many, incl

Like many other Métis communities, the Métis of the Upper Great Lakes relied on the bounty of their surrounding waterways for sustenance and survival. Many Métis were known as skilled fishermen, who used their expertise to feed their families and generate economic prosperity for their Métis communities. An article in the Ann Arbour Register from October 12, 1893, for example, celebrates Métis fishermen on Georgian Bay, who were “skilled hunters and know many curious habit

Throughout the fur trade era, Métis employees of the Hudson’s Bay Company and North West Company—such as Thomas Favill, Nicholas Chatelain, William Sinclair, William McKay, Bte. Jourdain, and Joseph Guimond—held numerous and diverse occupations in the Rainy Lake region. Métis workers often served as versatile jacks-of-all-trades alongside non-Métis apprentices, post-masters, and clerks. Diverse Métis occupations included fishery operations, net making, hunting, cutting cord-w